Network Working Group J. Chroboczek
Internet-Draft IRIF, University of Paris-Diderot
Intended status: Informational February 29, 2016
Expires: September 1, 2016
Applicability of the Babel routing protocoldraft-chroboczek-babel-applicability-01
Abstract
This document describes some application areas where the Babel
routing protocol [RFC6126] has been found to be useful.
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Chroboczek Expires September 1, 2016 [Page 1]

Internet-Draft Babel Protocol Applicability February 2016
where it is used with a metric computed from links' latencies
[DELAY-BASED].
2.3. Small unmanaged networks
Because of its small size and simple configuration, Babel has been
deployed in small, unmanaged networks (three to five routers), where
it serves as a more efficient replacement for RIP [RFC2453], albeit
with good support for wireless links.
3. Potential deployments of Babel
There are application areas for which Babel is a good fit, but where
it has not seen major deployments yet.
3.1. Pure mesh networks
Babel has been repeatedly shown to be competitive with dedicated
routing protocols for wireless mesh networks [REAL-WORLD]
[BRIDGING-LAYERS]. However, this particular niche is already served
by a number of mature protocols, notably OLSR-ETX as well as OLSRv2
[RFC7181] equipped with the DAT metric [DAT], so Babel has not seen
major deployments in pure meshes yet.
4. Application Areas where Babel is not recommended
There are a number of application areas where Babel is a poor fit.
4.1. Large, stable networks
Babel relies on periodic updates, and even in a stable network, it
generates a constant amount of background traffic. In large, stable,
well-administered networks, it is preferable to use protocols layered
above a reliable transport mechanism, such as OSPF [RFC5340], EIGRP
[EIGRP] or IS-IS [RFC1195].
4.2. Low-power networks
Babel relies on periodic updates and maintains within each node an
amount of state that is proportional to the number of reachable
destinations. In networks containing resource-constrained or
exteremely low-power nodes, it may be preferable to use a protocol
that limits the amount of state maintained and propagated; we have
heard of AODVv2 [AODVv2], RPL [RFC6550] and LOADng [LOADng].
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